Voldemort- Origins of the Heir is a fan-made film which explores the backstory of Lord Voldemort, the sinister antagonist of the Harry Potter series. The film is being produced by Tryangle, an independent, small-scale company.
Although J.K. Rowling has revealed snippets of Voldemort’s past in the original Harry Potter novels and films, the time period from which Tom Riddle graduated from Hogwarts to when he transitioned fully into Lord Voldemort was never wholly revealed.
The bulk of what we know about Tom Riddle thus far is that he graduated from Hogwarts and landed himself a job at the store called Borgin & Burkes. Several murders later, he became widely known in the wizarding world as Lord Voldemort.
The unknown will be the subject of the unofficial prequel, said Gianmaria Pezzato, the director of the film.
“We wondered: what made Tom Riddle become Voldemort? What happened in those years, and what really went down at Hogwarts when he came back? This is the story we want to tell: the rise of the Dark Lord before Harry Potter and his first demise.” – Pezzato
The story follows Grisha McLaggen (not previously known to the Potterverse), the heir of Gryffindor, in her quest to discover who murdered Hepzibah Smith. Smith was a descendant of the Hufflepuff family whom Voldemort was confirmed to have killed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in order to seize her possessions (Salazar Slytherin’s locket and Helga Hufflepuff’s cup) to use for horcruxes.
The film, which is estimated to cost 15000 € in production – including costumes, props, visual effects, music and sound design, photography and aerial video, stock footage, makeup and location access, among others – was financed via an online crowd-funding tool, Kickstarter. Due to a copyright litigation with Warner Bros, who own the intellectual property rights to the Harry Potter films, the campaign was temporarily suspended. However, Tryangle recently confirmed the two parties had reached an agreement, and that so long as the film remains nonprofit, the production of the film will go ahead. If all goes as planned, it will be released on YouTube in several months.
The trailer has been met with great enthusiasm from fans, with its “amazing” special effects and “professional feel of a Hollywood Blockbuster”.
https://youtu.be/5a1zs9YAvkk
Tryangle has been careful to assure audiences the film is in no way affiliated with J.K. Rowling or Warner Bros. Tryangle hope to shed some light on the backstory of Lord Voldemort and simultaneously demonstrate that quality films can be created without “a mammoth budget”, unlike the recent Potter spinoff, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and its sequels to follow.